Football World Cup 2006

[TheDiceAgain...]

Ouch, that's harsh...I'll grant you that baseball is the least physically taxing of the major sports in the US, but just try squatting down in 12 kg of protective gear and catching fastballs at anywhere from 140 to 160 KPH for 31 straight innings (which one of the catchers in that game did) and then tell me how much like snooker it is...

 

As to what was said, I'd really like to know. It seems such a waste for a guy who played as brilliantly as he did during the tournament to do something like that and get tossed in his final game.

 

I pretty sure that the Golden Ball is very cold comfort for him at this point. At least I would hope so if he's any kind of teammate.

 

P.S. - Some of the players may be out of shape, but I'd challenge you to come up with any single act in all of sports that is harder than hitting a baseball.

[CowardsLiveLonger]

Today Zidane's agent said that the comment Materazi made was

"I slept with your mother last night".....

"She is a dirty Terrorist whore"

This is pretty harsh as his mother is in hospital dying.......

 

Football is one of the most physically demanding sports there is!!! You just dont get to rest like you do in most sports....... Rugby would be up there too and so would Hockey!!! But ice skating doesnt take as much energy as running anyway.... Im not familiar with Hockey though so I wouldnt know about the breaks and how long they play, stuff like that..... how many substitutions can you make in hockey..... football is just 3, wich you probably already know anyway :?

[Ozhammer]

How Cowards, where in Leeds do you live? I used to work there!

[CowardsLiveLonger]

I live on the road between Hunslet and Belle Isle...... It really sucks!!!

[TheDiceAgain...]

Wow!! Frankly, I'd lay the SoB out too, if he said that to me!! In a way, that makes me understand what he did and sympathize. It's just too bad that it had to affect the outcome of the match as it did.

 

I have to take issue with your assertion that ice skating (hockey) is easier than running, though. Try skating backwards on blades a few millimeters thick at 20 MPH (35 KPH) and then having a 200-250 lb man crush you into boards made of fiberglass and steel (legally!). Then tell me how much easier it is.

 

From a stamina point of view, you're right, soccer players are some of the most fit athletes in the world , but I find it amusing that alot of the soccer fans that I know refuse to admit that there are any others who measure up in the fitness department

[Kivam]

Dice, I know exactly what you mean. Just compare football to soccer. Soccer fans will tell you that football players have it easy because there's time off between plays, that if they had to run for 90 minutes straight they'd fall apart.

 

And they're right.

 

But if soccer players had to get tackled - actually tackled, not soccer tackled - by Ray Lewis? They'd die.

 

Different skill sets, but various games take roughly equivalent amounts of energy. Play on until somebody wins.

[CowardsLiveLonger]

American Football isnt that tiring you still get the breaks... your only on the pitch for half of the game time it isnt that bad at all!!!!! and all the padding you wear makes it less painful then games like rugby and Aussy rules!!!!

The most tiring game I've played is celtic football.... if you've never played I advise it its alot of fun but you will have to have at least an above average fitness level to play the full game.... its unbelievable!!!

[Kivam]

American Football isnt that tiring you still get the breaks... your only on the pitch for half of the game time it isnt that bad at all!!!!! and all the padding you wear makes it less painful then games like rugby and Aussy rules!!!!

The most tiring game I've played is celtic football.... if you've never played I advise it its alot of fun but you will have to have at least an above average fitness level to play the full game.... its unbelievable!!!

 

See what I mean? :roll:

 

Simple facts:

 

the most gruesome injuries I've ever seen are a product of American football (and yes, I've seen Rugby/Aussie rules injuries, and even the worst of those are nowhere near as bad - including the wince inducing torn scrotums).

 

Rugby forwards (who I believe are the biggest players on the field) average what, 220lb? That would make them one of the smallest players on the field in an American football game. You are talking about guys who go anywhere from 240-360lbs running full speed (and full speed is NOT slow - even the biggest guys can run a forty yard dash in a little over 5 seconds, the fastest run in in 4.3, 4.4, and even some of the biggest guys on the field will run it in 4.7-4.8) and making the MOST violent contact in any sport (again, I've seen Rugby hits, Aussie Rules hits and even hockey hits, and nothing comes close to the sheer viciousness of the hits players take in American Football).

 

The fact is, put a Rugby player or an Aussie Rules player in full pads and ask them to play a game or two of football against NFL players, and they would not survive.

 

By the same token, ask most NFL players to run all day playing soccer or rugby or aussie rules, and they'd be gassed; different skill sets, different training. Neither is "harder" then the other - that's like saying it's harder to design a rocketship than paint a masterpiece, or vice versa. Few scientists could do the second, and few artists could do the first, but both require tremendous talent of a unique sort.

 

Personally, I find american football to be the best game in the world, for its unique combination of brutality and beauty, viciousness and athleticism (no act in sports requires more body control than catching a football on the sidelines and getting both feet down in bounds). Other people like other sports for other reasons (no act in sports is harder to accomplish than striking a round ball with a round bat and getting a hit, no sport requires more stamina than soccer, etc.). Not sure why people need to knock one or the other

[Guest Majsju]

Brutality, eh?

 

Probably the worst tackle I've seen in any sports:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tffv2avUQlw&search=roy%20keane

 

:lol:

[Kivam]

Brutality, eh?

 

Probably the worst tackle I've seen in any sports:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tffv2avUQlw&search=roy%20keane

 

:lol:

 

can't see it (it's blocked at work). Care to describe it?

[Guest Majsju]

Roy Keane from Manchester United jumps in with his leg stretched out, and hits Man city's Alfe-Inge Haaland on the side of the knee, you can see how the leg bends in a very unhealthy way. Needless to say, Haaland's career ends there.

 

It's not an accidental tackle, Haaland had in a previous game tackled Keane, and then accused Keane of diving and faking an injury. A "fake injury" that ket Keane out for several months. So it's sweet revenge :D

[Kivam]

FYI, another video I can't watch but the google link describes it as video of the Napoleon McCallum injury, which in my opinion was the worst in the history of sports:

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFSbh1qQNQU&search=injury

 

here's an image of the injury. Pay attention to McCallum's leg (on the lower right of the photo) particularly the direction his knee is bending. McCallum dislocated his knee, tearing three ligaments, ripping his calf and hamstring muscles from the bone, and incurring nerve and artery damage.

 

http://www.fotosports.com/archive/p2_98576-12104120702.jpg

[TheDiceAgain...]

Well this thread has certainly morphed somewhat...

 

Be that as it may, I'll add my own $.02 on gruesome hits. I only have video for one, but both of them came from the NFL:

 

Lawrence Taylor on Joe Theisman - LT was one of the best linebackers and most ferocious hitters I've ever seen. This hit snapped Theisman's shin, tore up his already injured knee and ended his career inside of half a second.

 

http://www.extremesportclips.com/viewvideo.php?vid=299

 

Tim Krumrie - Cincinnati Bengals, Super Bowl XXIII - Krumrie was the starting nose tackle for the Begals when they played San Fran in the Super Bowl for the second time. In the pile during a run up the middle, his foot got stuck in the turf and he was clipped by one of the 49ers' lineman. Both of the bones in his lower leg snapped and his ankle was shattered. As the pile rolled over, you could see it bent at a 90 degree angle at about mid-shin with his foot pointed the wrong way. They even had a super-slow motion replay of it, and it just turns your stomach to see.

[Guest Winespring Brother]

That was horrific!!!!!

 

 

Here's another one to make the bravest of you shudder, but just a picture. Look at the leg of the player in light blue

 

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~choh/busst.jpg

[Guest Majsju]

Back to Zizou, he gave an interview today, but didn't say exactly what materazzi had said. He did confirm that it was something really nasty about Zizou's mother and sister, and that materazzi said it three times.

 

Zizou's mother is reported to have said that she wants materazzi's balls on a plate, gotta admire such sweet old ladies :D

[Guest Majsju]

What Really happened with mazeratti...

 

http://img470.imageshack.us/img470/6102/asseenbyfrench7ol.gif

[Kivam]

BTW, those two American football hits in those videos are good comparison to the soccer hit in the video Maj put up. All of those injuries are horrific. But Keane was ejected from the game for that hit. Those hits you saw in the American football videos weren't illegal. More, they weren't particularly vicious for football - just an average, run of the mill play with disastrous results. Almost every single play in American football ends with a hit like that (though thankfully not with those injuries).

 

Do you begin to understand why players wear pads?

[Jellybelly]

I hate to do this to you, but... By your logic, if the American Football players were not wearing armour, those tackles would be illegal. :P

[Kivam]

I hate to do this to you, but... By your logic, if the American Football players were not wearing armour, those tackles would be illegal. :P

 

:lol:

 

but actually, no. For years, football was played with fewer pads and even more vicious tackles (things like clotheslining a player with the ball were legal).

 

But two things happened. First, players were getting severely injured. Second, players were getting bigger, stronger and faster, and injuries were getting worse and more common. Third, even players who didn't suffer catastrophic injury on the field were suffering from debilitating and degenerative diseases later in life, from parkinsons and brain damage to crippling joint and ligament damage. So they added pads to protect the players. Even with the pads, the injury risk (both during the career and long term) is staggering.

[Guest Majsju]

Brain damage? Is there really any brain left to damage with all the steroids american "football" players are munching? :lol: